


How to Say "I Love You"

by shnuffeluv



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, Love, Morality | Patton Sanders is a Good Friend, Morality | Patton Sanders-centric, No Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-28
Updated: 2019-01-28
Packaged: 2019-10-18 09:50:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17578595
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/shnuffeluv
Summary: Patton has a lot of feelings, but how does he express them?





	How to Say "I Love You"

Patton had a lot of feelings. So far, so obvious, he knew, but he felt like it needed to be said. He had a lot of feelings, and often didn’t know what to do with them. He’d make little drawings or cards for the others around the holidays, be a mother hen if they were sick, the works. But in between those times, he often felt a little lost for how to express the overwhelming  _emotion_  he got from watching the others be themselves.

Roman was probably the easiest person to subtly share his love with. Patton was always ready for a dramatic duet, or a Disney movie, or even just a moment where the two of them were doing two separate things on the same couch.

One day particularly stood out in Patton’s mind, where Roman came to him, red in the face and panting, saying, “I-don’t-know-what-you’ve-done-yet-but-you-gave-me-an-amazing-idea-thank-you.” He hugged Patton tightly and then ran off somewhere, if Patton had to hazard a guess it was to tell Thomas about what he had come up with.

The thing was, Patton had been joking around the night before with Roman, just spit-balling ridiculous story ideas, the last of which had Roman in stitches. Apparently a puppy pirate was too cute an idea for Roman to pass up on talking about, and the longer they talked about it the more Roman was laughing and nodding. He had wound up half asleep on the couch in the common room, muttering to himself. Patton had just helped him into bed and tucked him in, Roman continuing to mutter until he was fully asleep.

Patton had beamed with pride all afternoon once Roman had hugged him, and whenever anyone asked him why, he just shrugged and said, “Guess I’m glad I got to help someone.”

* * *

Virgil wasn’t as easy to demonstrate affection to as Roman was, granted, because he was constantly suspecting Patton was making it up. But eventually, he seemed to warm up to the idea of Patton hanging around him every once in a while, not because Patton didn’t have anything better to do but because it was just something he wanted to happen.

Patton startled Virgil one day while he was scrawling madly in a notebook just by walking up to him and clearing his throat, and Patton immediately backpedaled. “Sorry, Virge, I didn’t realize that you were so absorbed in writing.”

“Not a big deal,” Virgil muttered. “What’s up?”

“I saw you were working hard and I just thought I’d bring you over something to drink and something to eat,” Patton said, putting down a plate of a peanut butter sandwich with cheddar and sour cream chips on the side, and a glass of Sprite. “The Sprite’s been out of the refrigerator a while so it should be about room temperature the way you like it, the sandwich is plain peanut butter, no surprises, and the chips are still sealed in the bag so you know I couldn’t have done anything to them.”

Virgil looked down at the lunch in surprise and then up at Patton. “I…don’t know what to say. This is…exactly the way I like my lunch. Thanks.”

Patton smiled and bounced on his toes. “Any way that I can help, kiddo!” he said, moving off to the next thing he had set out to do that day.

* * *

Logan, out of all of them, had to be the hardest to express affection to. Not because Patton didn’t like him, far from it! They just had vastly different ways of interpreting the world and as such often didn’t see eye-to-eye on what was affectionate and what wasn’t.

Still, Patton made the effort. Though he didn’t understand why it was so important, he kept all of Logan’s things tidy if they were out in the open and someone had moved them to do their own thing. He put bookmarks in places where Logan had been reading books if he absolutely had to close them, because he knew Logan hated dog-eared pages. When Logan wanted to explain something he found interesting, Patton always sat down with him and listened to what Logan had to say.

Logan actually felt a lot of emotion. Patton had discovered this through whenever Logan got excited about something he was learning. He just felt it differently than the others did, and that was something Patton could work with, even if it was hard sometimes.

One day, Roman and Virgil were in the living room, about to play a Mario Kart tourney to end all Mario Kart tourneys, and Patton spotted Logan’s work on the table in front of them. “Guys, wait!” he exclaimed. “Logan’s stuff is all over the table, it’ll go everywhere if we don’t secure it somehow first!”

Roman and Virgil looked at each other in realization before turning to Patton. “That wouldn’t be good,” Roman muttered. Then he asked Patton, “How do we…uh…‘secure’ it?”

“Well, we could move it to the kitchen,” Patton offered. “I know which books he’ll want on top and what papers should go where. If I tell you, do you promise to follow my directions exactly and help out? Because I know the exact way Logan likes his stuff to be placed.”

Roman and Virgil nodded and together the three safely removed Logan’s work from the table and transferred it to the kitchen. Patton didn’t miss the way Logan relaxed later that afternoon when he saw all his work was in order and not messed up from Roman and Virgil’s heated debate about who  _truly_  won the tourney because each accused the other of cheating on several courses. Patton also didn’t miss the small nod and smile Logan gave him when he looked up from his work later, letting him know he knew just who had orchestrated the move.

Patton sometimes found it hard to express how he felt to the other sides. But that didn’t mean that they all didn’t know how he felt.

**Author's Note:**

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